Germany updates: Merz seeks to win over investment – DW – 07/21/2025
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is welcoming executives from top German firms on Monday, hoping to rally fresh investment after two years of recession.
Around 30 companies — including big hitters like Siemens and Deutsche Bank — are expected to present projects under the "Made for Germany" push to restore confidence in the economy.
While the government has approved billions in tax relief and a €500-billion ($580 billion) fund for infrastructure and climate, Berlin says public money alone won't be enough. from the DW newsroom, overlooking the Rhine River in Bonn — the former capital of West Germany.
You join us as Chancellor Friedrich Merz gets ready to woo some of Germany's biggest business bosses to help get the sluggish economy back on its feet.
Top names like Siemens and Deutsche Bank are expected talks in Berlin, along with more than a dozen other DAX-listed giants.
About 30 firms are set to join what's being billed as a major push to rebuild investor confidence in the country's economic future.
Merz is under pressure after two back-to-back years of recession and little sign that 2025 will turn things around.
Follow along for the latest on what Germany is talking about on Monday, July 21.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
6 hours ago
- DW
Anne Applebaum: 'If you want peace, you must arm Ukraine' – DW – 07/22/2025
Anne Applebaum is an award-winning historian, writer, and publicist. In an interview with DW, she shared her insights on Russian President Vladimir Putin's goals in Ukraine. She also explained what she thinks the West doesn't understand about Putin, and vice versa. This video is a short excerpt of a longer interview with Ann Applebaum. Below is a transcript from one of the questions. Anne Applebaum: People have been asking this question for a decade. There was a major investigation during Trump's first presidency into the sources of Russian influence on the Trump campaign. It showed that there was influence, but they were never able to prove that there was criminal involvement. We know that Trump has had Russian connections for more than 30 years. He's had Russian investment into his business. And this is not a conspiracy theory. This is all documented. We know that he has had positive thoughts about Russia. We know he's felt very negative about US alliances for a long time. It's in his books from more than a decade ago. All these instincts have been in place even before Putin came to power. Since he's in power, Trump is someone who's very impressed by people who operate without checks and balances, without restrictions, without courts, without journalists. He admires that kind of power. My guess is that he's positively disposed to the Russians anyway and that he's personally impressed with Putin. I don't know, obviously, what their personal interactions are like, but Putin is a trained KGB officer. He would know how to find somebody's weaknesses, and he would know how to find the way to manipulate someone and persuade them that he is his friend. Certainly, it's the case that Trump believes Putin to be his friend, and he has said that, he's used that word.
Local Germany
8 hours ago
- Local Germany
Which benefits am I entitled to as a part-time employee in Germany?
The number of part-time workers has grown significantly in recent years. Almost two out of five employees in Germany work part-time, according to figures from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) for the first quarter of 2025. All regularly employed workers in Germany are entitled to certain benefits, but the amount of paid time off or other benefits you are entitled to does depend on how many hours you work in some cases. So what entitlements do part-time employees have in Germany regarding holidays, special payments, bonuses and the like? Here's what you need to know: Vacation days Full-time employees at many German companies receive up to 30 days of vacation a year. However, the minimum requirement according to German labour law is at least 20 days per year for workers on a five-day work week. "Part-time employees have the same entitlement, provided they work every day of the week," Daniel Stach, an employment lawyer at the Verdi federal board, told the German Press Agency. But if part-time work is spread across fewer weekly working days, then your vacation entitlement is adjusted accordingly. So if a company offers 30 vacation days for employees who work five days per week, then employees who work four days per week would be entitled to 80 percent of the benefit. Their vacation entitlement would therefore be 24 days (calculated as follows: 30 x 4 / 5 = 24). In effect, part-time workers are entitled to the same number of weeks of vacation as full-time employees - but they get fewer paid days off because they work fewer days per week. Advertisement When part-time work is irregular, it's calculated based on the total number of working days over a longer period. If an employee works 150 days per year, for example, their benefit would be calculated like this: 30 (vacation days for full-time employees) divided by 260 (annual working days of the company) multiplied by 150 (working days of the part-time employee per year) resulting in 17.30 vacation days per year. Special payments & bonuses Employees may be entitled to special payments, like Christmas or holiday bonuses, if these are stipulated in their employment contract. If so, part-time employees are entitled to at least a portion of the bonus payments, usually calculated pro rata depending on their working days. Regarding anniversary bonuses or loyalty bonuses for long-term employees, part-time employees are typically entitled to the same amount as full-time employees. If there's any doubt about bonus entitlements, employees are advised to check their employment contracts and / or ask their works council, trade union or a specialist employment lawyer. READ ALSO: Can I be paid in Germany for any holiday I don't take? Overtime pay According to German labour law - specifically the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act - part-time employees must be granted "every divisible corresponds to the proportion of the working to a full-time employee." This also extends to overtime pay. So part-time workers should also be paid more for hours worked overtime, which typically starts after eight hours of work in a single day or after 48 hours of work in a working week. Exceptions to this are permissible if an employer can present objective reasons to justify different treatment based on the nature of the work. Care-taker's leave Employees can take up to six months of care leave to care for a close relative who requires care level 1 at home. READ ALSO: Can I get time off for moving house in Germany? Advertisement According to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, this applies to both full-time and part-time employees, who have the option of being released from work completely or partially. In order to better secure their livelihood during this time, they can also apply for an interest-free loan from the Federal Office for Family and Civil Society Tasks (BAFzA). With reporting by DPA.
DW
9 hours ago
- DW
In India, caste still defines who cleans cities – DW – 07/22/2025
People from the lower rungs of India's strict social hierarchy say they're trapped doing jobs like cleaning sewers because of historical discrimination. At least 77% of India's 38,000 sewer and septic workers are from the Dalit community, according to data from India's National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE). Dalits are a historically marginalized group, comprising the lowest level of India's centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy. NAMASTE is an organization that claims to protect sanitation workers, while promoting the use of mechanized cleaning machines and securing subsidies to reduce manual labor. In 2020, the Indian government announced measures to end the hazardous practice of manual scavenging — the removal of human excrement from toilets, septic tanks and sewers by hand — by August 2021. The initiatives were part of the "Clean India Initiative," launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that aimed to enforce laws banning manual scavenging. However, despite the ban, this dirty work goes on, largely carried out by Dalits. Despite their efforts to obtain other municipal jobs for which they are qualified, many Dalits claim to have been denied other work, effectively trapping them in cleaning roles. "The government refuses to acknowledge the social reality that India is fundamentally a caste-based society," said Bezwada Wilson from Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a advocacy group in India seeking an end to manual scavenging. "What they claim is less about facts and more about their own opinion," Wilson told DW. "Telling manual scavengers to buy machines themselves under the NAMASTE scheme is a cruel form of 'rehabilitation,'" said Wilson. "Instead of ending caste-based hiring, it simply repackages it under a modern name — NAMASTE is caste discrimination disguised as progress." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Dalits are usually given the most menial and hazardous jobs, which are deemed "impure" by religious and social standards. These jobs are passed down through generations, trapping families into a cycle of social exclusion and economic deprivation. Even among the Dalits, the Valmiki sub-caste, historically faces harsher socio-political and economic exclusion, suppression and violence. "Caste is seen as a result of one's past deeds, condemning scavengers to a life of cleaning others' waste," Vivek Kumar, a professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told DW. "Patronizing it by calling it a 'spiritual duty' or 'noble service to society' masks the harsh reality of discrimination," Kumar added. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Dalits often experience segregation in housing, education and social interaction. The association between caste and sanitation work limits Dalits from moving up the social ladder — forbidding their access to other jobs and opportunities. Kumar said that caste has not withered away with modernity or urbanization. Instead, it has spread into urban centers and entered modern institutions, such as industry, civil society, polity and bureaucracy. "Until caste acts as a cultural capital for the 'upper castes' we cannot eliminate it," he said. Kumar believes that "dignity of labor" must be taught from primary to higher education to move past the outdated belief of scavenging work being tied to one's birth. "Once the connection between caste and scavenging is broken and the job is fairly paid, we'll see other communities stepping in these jobs," Kumar concluded. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
